MARGAO: Strongly claiming that the Fisheries Department has turned a blind eye to the rampant illegal fishing in the River Zuari, the traditional fishing community has accused the department of supporting the loot and plunder.
They criticised the alleged inaction on the part of the department despite Fisheries Secretary, S S Gill assuring the delegation of Fishermen from All Goa Small Scale Responsible Fisheries Union on Monday that action would be initiated against this menace.
“Yet nothing has happened so far,” said Sebastiao Rodrigues, an Environmental activist on Wednesday.
The Union stated that on Wednesday from 6 am onwards, after discovering that alleged illegal purse seine fishing was taking place in Zuari River, they tried alerting the department again, but the Fisheries Control room was inaccessible.
“It looks to be deliberately disabled to avoid receiving complaints of such illegalities. Fisheries patrol boats as well as marine police patrol boats vanished. They appear in waters only during the G20 Summit meetings without fail,” the fishermen claimed.
“The entire fisheries administration is in a collapsed state. The livelihood of the traditional fishers using legally permitted Gill net in River Zuari stands disrupted. All purse seine fishing nets in River Zuari are illegal as stated by Fisheries Deputy Director Chandrakant Velip during the meeting with Fisheries Secretary on August 28, 2023, as well as per department circulars earlier,” they added.
“Purse seine fishers use computerised fish finders as well as purse seine fishing nets with mesh sizes as small as 5 mm that trigger massive fish depletion, catching fish smaller than juveniles,” Rodrigues added.
“The repeated incidents of massive illegal fishing are a joint failure of the Government of Goa and Government of India, who through their acts of omission promote illegal fishing in Goa,” Rodrigues alleged.
The fishing community alleged that politicians and ministers are deliberately preventing the authorities from taking any strong action against illegal fishing in River Zuari.
They alleged that there is collusion between the State Fisheries administration and those carrying on illegal fishing and that therefore the concerns of traditional fishermen have been sidelined.
When O Heraldo spoke to other stakeholders about the inaction on the part of the fisheries department, they agreed that the department has to do a lot more to tackle these issues.
Olencio Simoes, General Secretary, the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), said, “For the last seven years, the violation of the ban on bull trawling or pair trawling equipped with generators and the use of LED lights in territorial waters and Indian Exclusive Zone (EEZ) continues. Due to the negligent use of such destructive gears by a handful of purse-seine owners, it has totally destroyed the nursing grounds of several species of fish and marine ecology.”
Agnelo Rodrigues, President, Goencheo Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE), said, “There are boats that are using illegal fishing equipment and carrying out illegal bull trawling in Goan territorial waters using high-speed engines.”
Camilo Souza, a traditional ramponkar from Velsao, said, “If proper and prompt action is not taken today by the Fisheries Department, then Goan fishermen will have to stop going out to fish altogether as there won’t be any fish in the sea to fish in the future.”
